Passengers waiting to
board the steamboat Eucumbene II

women, a few in slacks most in skirts
clutch cameras and handbags
men in ties and hats — they gather at shore
for the steamboat
on grass that is dry, golden, sparse
                                             under a dead tree
— offering no shade.

Snow-covered
houses at Cabramurra

dark cowls on the chimneys
of modular housing — tin sheds
with brightly coloured doors
— on the road above the camp
all-terrain vehicles park up — others
buried in snow.

Tunnelling in
the Eucumbene–Tumut tunnel

underground, in an adit under lights
the tunnel supported by sets and struts
scaffolding a new emptiness —
the mountain settles into bearing
                                           its different load.